“Across the long arc of evolution, the universe has been learning how to speak.” Reflection seven in an eleven-part series on the Powers of the Universe stemming from the work of Brian Thomas Swimme
Yikes! Cerebralization isn’t even in my spell checker—nor, for that matter, in most dictionaries.
Don’t let the word scare you. Part of my task in this series is to translate scientific language—often intimidating and obscure—into insights that make sense in everyday life. After all, how can we integrate these ideas if we don’t even understand what they mean?
In my Deep Time class, when Brian Swimme was asked about cerebralization, he first spoke about symbolization. When pressed further, he offered something even simpler than symbolization: communication.
Okay—now we’re getting somewhere.
Metatron’s Cube Rosette, Labyrinth and Photo by Lars Howlett
In earlier reflections we explored other deep patterns moving through the universe—Allurement drawing life forward, Emergence bringing forth the new, Centration holding what has appeared, Homeostasis sustaining life within a creative range of vitality, Synergy weaving relationships into greater wholeness, Transmutation transforming what is into new possibility, and Cataclysm breaking apart what can no longer serve life. Cerebralization now adds another dimension: the universe developing the capacity to symbolize, communicate, and reflect upon its own unfolding.
We humans know that many species communicate with one another. On the golf course where I live, we have Canadian geese. They squawk, chase, and scold each other constantly, yet they also stay close when one of their own is injured. There are also wild turkeys, and when mating season arrives the air fills with their ongoing conversations—especially among the males—announcing that something important is underway.
Nature is full of voices.
In her book The Light Eaters, Zoë Schlanger explores what scientists are discovering about intraspecies communication. Squirrels warn one another when an intruder enters their territory. Have you ever felt scolded by a squirrel? That sharp chatter is part of their alarm system. Schlanger humorously notes that some squirrels have such a low tolerance for fear that they cry “wolf” too often—and the others eventually learn to ignore them.
The more we study the living world, the clearer it becomes that communication is woven deeply into life itself. If we are to truly become Earthlings, we must begin to recognize how much more there is to understand about how nature speaks and how the universe unfolds through relationship.
But human communication introduces something new.
Symbolization.
Labyrinth Altar, photo by Lars Howlett
Symbolization is one of humanity’s oldest and most powerful capacities, from cave art to programming AI. Words, images, gestures, music, mathematics—all are symbols that carry meaning far beyond the moment in which they are created.
And here is the deeper evolutionary insight: the human capacity to symbolize is not just a human achievement. It is a Power of the Universe unfolding through us.
Through symbols, the universe gains a new ability—the ability to remember, imagine, and reflect upon itself.
A thought formed in one mind can travel across centuries through language, art, or story and awaken insight in another. A poem written hundreds of years ago can still move us today. Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile invites us into a slow inner listening.
Here I want to quote my friend Steve Martin from his article The Cosmic Labyrinth, which I shared just a few weeks ago:
“Through the power of words and images, one person’s interior experience can leap across vast amounts of time and space to awaken something new in another…Examples of this power wandered through my mind. A stock trader’s keystroke could raze a rainforest or fund its restoration. Golden arches summon fast food across continents. A single photograph of Earth rising over the Moon altered human consciousness. Our species has been handed Promethean symbolic power before we’ve developed the maturity and wisdom to handle it wisely. No wonder the world seems like it’s on fire—we’ve been handed a full box of matches!”
Labyrinth and Photo by Lars Howlett
The universe has become capable of conscious participation in its own unfolding.
Human beings have been given a Promethean power of symbols before we have fully developed the wisdom to wield it responsibly.
It’s a sobering thought. How can we humans become more mature? Self-reflection.
Walking labyrinths can become part of the answer. Seen in this light, the labyrinth is more than an ancient spiritual symbol; it is a creation of an unfolding Universe, given to us to cultivate other ways of knowing—especially when we’ve been blinded or cut off from our inner thoughts and emotive processes. The winding path slows the cerebral rush, quiets the constant noise of the modern mind, and invites consciousness to rest in a deeper field of awareness where meaning can arise without being forced. In that slowed and embodied attention, symbols arise easily: what has been wordless takes form; what has been fragmented begins to integrate. And because the labyrinth is a shared pattern—walked by countless people across cultures and centuries—it also becomes a gentle mode of communication, a quiet expression of shared human consciousness. Each walk is personal, yet the pattern is communal, and in that living pattern humanity learns to recognize itself more deeply—more whole, more connected, and more awake to the sacred.
Grace Cathedral Candlelight Walk, Photo by Lars Howlett
Meditation: The Universe Awakens in You
Pause for a moment.
Across billions of years—through fire, water, and living earth— the universe has been moving toward this: a mind that can wonder, a heart that can feel.
And now… here you are.
Cerebralization is a sacred threshold— the moment the cosmos begins to reflect upon itself through you.
Your thoughts, your memories, your voice— this is the universe learning to know itself.
As we are reminded in evolutionary spirituality, we are part of a long, sacred unfolding, shaped through eons of divine creativity.
Let that settle.
You are not outside the story. You are a living expression within it.
So, breathe.
The universe is not only expanding outward— it is awakening inward through you.
Labyrinth by Athena Dugan at Veriditas Labyrinth Summer School
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